Dentist shortage acute as training program cuts bite

February 16, 2005 — 11.00am

The shortage of dentists in parts of rural NSW is so acute that numbers are less than one-third the average for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

In some country towns there are simply no dentists, says Associate Professor Hans Zoellner, chairman of the Association for the Promotion of Oral Health. Dr Zoellner said the OECD average was 56 dentists per 100,000 people. But the Central West has only 17.3 dentists per 100,000 - similar to levels in some developing countries.

"Studies have shown that children in rural areas have significantly more dental decay than children in urban areas," he said.

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"Preventable dental hospitalisations are almost twice as frequent in rural areas compared with metropolitan areas.

"Rural residents are also 50 per cent more likely to have teeth extracted than metropolitan residents."

Cuts to dental training programs have contributed to the shortage of dentists. The number of dentists who graduate from the state's only dental faculty, at the University of Sydney, has halved in the past two decades - about 50 now, including foreign fee-paying students, compared with more than 100 in the 1980s.

The faculty's dean, Professor Eli Schwarz, said federal and state governments had failed to ensure there were enough trained dentists to cope with the population's health needs.

"The Federal Government supports universities with HECS places and then the faculty provides for the rest of the required funding with fee-paying students, but it is done without any regard for why we are training dentists," Dr Schwarz said.

"It is not linked to the oral health of the population."

In the past six years the university has reduced its funding for the faculty by about 23 per cent. "Dental education is extremely expensive," he said. "At the moment we get 45 places and we top up with fee-paying local and international students. We could train more dentists if we had more staff."

A study by the University of Adelaide's Australian Research Centre for Population Oral Health says cuts to dental training programs will result in rising rates of oral disease. The study says there are not enough dentists to keep up with growing demand from an ageing population. It predicts a shortage of about 1500 dental workers - or 3.8 million visits - by 2010.

"As the shortage bites, demand for dental care will outstrip supply and fees will increase," said the centre's director, Professor John Spencer.

"That will encourage people eligible for public care to seek it in the public sector rather than go to private practices. Groups in the community that don't enjoy good access to dental care now will be squeezed even harder.